


All That Was Lost, Is Revealed

by macNcheeseable



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Chaptered, F/M, Mild Blood, Sequel, To Be Continued
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2694056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macNcheeseable/pseuds/macNcheeseable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After feeling like something is missing for months, Wirt and Greg find a way back to the Unknown. However, something is different this time. The boys must figure out the issue before its too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Loveliest Lies of All

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first continuous fanfiction so if you like it feedback is greatly appreciated so I'll keep writing. I found Over the Garden Wall just too good not to keep it going, and I had some ideas. I hope you enjoy!  
> I'm really sorry I've been so bad about posting, I'll get the next chapter out there eventually.

“Hey you,” said a quirky voice from behind Wirt that broke him out of his daydream. He turned around to see Sara smiling softly at him from the other side of the bike rack.

“Uh, me?” he asked pointing to himself.

She grinned and punched his arm. “Of course you, who else would I be talking to?”

He laughed lightly and shrugged. “How was mascot practice?”

“Terrible. I will never understand why they lump mascots with cheerleaders. Or why I need to attend practices, you know?”

“Yeah, they should just do away with those practice things,” he said, nodding in agreement.

“You just don’t like waiting around for me to get done after school! I told you, you need to join some after school group or something.”

“I told you I would join marching band next season! Its not my fault football season ended and there’s no need for a clarinet player at basketball games.”

“You could go solo during halftime,” Sara said while putting on a pair of maroon gloves.

“Does basketball even have a halftime?”

She shrugged and stuffed her black hair into a heavily pom-pommed hat. “I have no idea. Just because I’m at every game doesn’t mean I pay attention or know what’s going on.”

Sara unchained her bike from the rack and swung one leg over.  


“Wait, are you coming over today?” Wirt asked.

“No, sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I have martial arts today. Guess you didn’t have to wait for me after all. But if I don’t get too sweaty and gross I’ll call you, I might stop by afterwards.” Sara had started taking karate classes as a compromise with her mother. Beating someone to a pulp skillfully was the best option between wrestling and ballet. “You want a ride home though? I can drop you off.”

Wirt shook his head. “Nah, its not snowing today so I’ll just walk.”

She nodded, smiled, and then kicked off, peddling away. Wirt smiled at her use of hand signals when she got to the intersection. Then he took a deep breath of the chilly air and walked the other way.

The road and sidewalk were wet with melted snow. It was still freezing most days, but spring was definitely on its way. The trees had buds on them, the grass was looking less dead, and a variety of critters were beginning to appear much to Wirt’s brother’s delight.

He stepped carefully around the puddles, trying to concentrate solely on keeping his pant legs dry. There was a moment where he almost went back into daydreaming when he caught the reflection of the sky in a puddle but quickly shook it off. By the time he got near his house, he was so concentrated if he hadn’t heard the singing he would have totally missed Greg.

“Make a splash, in a flash, don’t crash, in the trash, diaper rash,” sang Greg as he jumped in the puddles in front of the house, soaking both him and Jason Funderburker (who didn’t seem to mind too much).

“Working on your rhymes Greg?” Wirt asked, careful to avoid the spray. It would have been completely pointless to have worked so hard staying dry on the walk home only to get drenched by his brother’s splashes.

“Yeah!” he shouted and then used his shoes to scoop up water and pour it over his head like a shower.

“Well you’re getting better! Also does your dad know you’re out here? Because I don’t feel like he would be too happy with the state of your shoes. Or your hair. Also aren’t you cold?”

“Don’t be cold, buy some gold, grow some mold, get real old,” Greg sang in response.

“You can’t be controlled,” Wirt said back.

“Ha ha, good one Wirt!” Greg shouted. Then he went back to singing and stomping in the puddles.

“At least come inside before Jason gets chilly!” Wirt shouted over his shoulder as he walked up to the house.

He was surprised to see his mother was home, and made sure to say hello even though she was on the phone with a client. Then he grabbed an apple from the kitchen and took two stairs at a time to his room. Once there he plopped down on his bed and pulled out his textbooks so he could get started on his homework right away.

Every now and then Wirt would glance up at the quote he pinned behind the door that read “There are just some kind of men who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one.” He knew the quote didn’t mean what he was reading it as, but he felt like it inspired him to stay focused on the things that matter.

He could only stay focused for as long as he had something to focus on however, and his homework was done too quickly. Before the Halloween Incident in the fall, Wirt only did his homework when he felt like it and didn’t think of it as a priority. But now he needed that routine and halfway wished his teachers would give him more.

Not wanting to get mopey, he decided to listen to some music. He got out his tape player and picked a tape from his stack. Sara always teased him because nearly all the tapes he had were of old American folk music.

“Ah, I see, you only have these because they’re the only tapes you can find, right?” She said, smiling, when he had first shown her his collection.

“No, I… I just like this music,” he said “It’s just got a nice vibe I like. And I know that sounds cheesy! But that’s what I like.”

Sara’s smile got wider. “And that’s just fine by me. I think its kind of cute.”

He had blushed and smiled back while he showed her how to work a tape player so they could listen to some of that music.

“This is good,” he thought “Keep thinking about Sara. Listen to music. Stay focused.”

He had to fix one of his favorite tapes that had somehow gotten the tape pulled out a little too much when he stuck it in the box. He popped it in and grabbed a book to read. Unfortunately it was one of his stepdad’s incredibly boring books about interior design and the right placement of furniture. But Wirt convinced himself, by golly, he was going to make it through this book. It would give him some insight as to what the heck Greg’s dad was talking about at dinner anyway. But with the music and the boring subject it hardly took him any time at all before he was asleep.

He was awoken by the sound of his ringtone, which was a sped-up version of Mozart’s Klarinettenkonzert. Wirt groggily lifted his head and grabbed his old flip-phone.

“Hello?” he asked, sitting up. He shook his head to try to clear his mind of the dream he had. Even if he did his best to distract himself, he couldn’t stop the dreams from coming.

“Hey! Are you asleep or something?” said Sara’s voice.

“Or something,” Wirt replied.

“You forgot I was going to come over, didn’t you? Its fine, I can go home if you’re tired.”

“No, no, its fine. Wait, are you here already?” Wirt noticed his stepdad had left a bowl of soup on his desk with a post-it that said “Thought I’d let you sleep.”

“Haha, yeah it wasn’t far to your house so I thought I’d go ahead and bike here. So yeah, I’m outside.”

Wirt looked out the window and saw Sara standing outside on the sidewalk next to her blue bike. He turned his head to the side and waved down at her. She turned her head to the other side, squinted a little, smiled, and waved back.

“Yeah come on up,” he said and ran around to tidy his room a bit before racing downstairs. He raced downstairs and made it just in time for the doorbell.

He opened the door and tried not to show his heavy breathing. Sara noticed anyway and shook her head.

“You know there’s other people in this house who could open the door, right? For example, I greatly prefer it when you let Greg do it. He’s much cuter than you.”

Wirt tried to look deeply offended when a small voice came out from the kitchen. “Did somebody say my name?” asked Greg, toddling into the entry hall.

“Yeah sure Gregory,” Wirt said. “We were talking about how you need to get Jason Funderburker needs a new raincoat if you’re going to start puddle jumping as a hobby.”

“Dad told me I wasn’t allowed to jump in puddles anymore,” Greg pouted. “Said it ruined the upholstery.”

“Well we just can’t have that,” Sara said, shaking her head.

“No we can’t have it! Nothing rhymes with upholstery!” Greg exclaimed, pushing his eyebrows together and looking distressed.

Sara tried to hold in a laugh as she and Wirt went up to his room. She plopped down in his swivel chair and used her foot to push herself in a circle.  


“You want some soup? Have you eaten yet?”

“I’m fine, I brought a couple of granola bars with me today since I knew I was going to be getting home later.”

Wirt nodded and picked up his soup to eat. It was so good he had to offer it to Sara again, and he pushed until she finally took a spoonful or two.

They chitchatted for a little while about school and friends. Jason and Lauren had broken up already because Funderberker felt she was being “too clingy” and that she had an “annoying voice”.

“Poor Funderberker,” Sara said. Wirt felt a pang of old jealousy but then it was quickly gone.

“How was your martial arts class?” he asked to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, it was great! She said. “Its got all the good stuff of ballet and all the stuff I liked about wrestling. Plus I feel like I could use it in my everyday life, you know? And that’s always a good thing.”

They talked about homework for the Astronomy class they were both in and then the conversation died. After a minute of silence Wirt finally said “Come on, talk about something. Please.”

Sara gave him a knowing look with her dark brown eyes. “Its still bothering you, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, turning away from her and staring at his pillow.

“Sure you don’t,” She scooted the chair closer to him. “Look, after that night at the hospital you’ve been kind of a different person. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked it. You’re so much more confident now and outgoing, and you’ve gotten past a lot of issues you used to have, and you’ve become a wonderful brother for Greg, and you’ve been just great. But especially recently you’ve been out of it more and more. Don’t think I can’t tell how you’re trying to distract yourself. And if you run out of things to do, you go into this daydream world. Now I don’t know what happened that night, but you seem to be dealing with some issues.”

Wirt bit his lip and looked back up at her. “Look, I don’t know. Like I don’t know how much of that night was real. There was some pretty serious hallucinations happening and I guess I just keep thinking back to those-oh, don’t tell my mother about this please. You know she does enough psychology at work, she doesn't need to deal with her crazy kid.”

“Scout’s honor,” she said holding up her fingers. “Have you tried writing about it? You’re a pretty good poet, and that might be an effective way of getting out the feelings you know?”

Wirt shrugged and looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know, I don’t feel like it would be that kind of thing.”

“Well the other thing you could do is Return to the Scene of the Crime I guess. Maybe if you went back to the river and train tracks you could get over it.” She slid off the chair and rolled to his closet. Even in this serious moment he couldn’t help but grin a bit at her tumbling routine. From the back of the closet Sara pulled out a red cone-shaped hat.

“And if you’re going to do it you have to wear this obviously.”

Wirt rolled his eyes and sighed. “You don’t have you worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah okay. I should go. Take care of yourself Wirt. You’re important to me, you know.” Sara stood up and walked over to where he was sitting and then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. A warm red glow quickly spread over his face as she left the room.

“Bye Sara! Don’t forget aloe vera!” Wirt heard Greg shout as the front door opened and closed.

Wirt smiled to himself as he thought about Sara’s kiss. It still seemed a bit surreal that she actually liked him back.

But then he noticed the red hat she had forgotten to put back in the closet and his mind zoomed back to their conversation. He sighed and knelt down to pull something out from under his bed.

First he pulled out a red notebook, then a blue one, then another blue one, and a green one. They were all filled with poetry he had written about the Unknown. There were some about the scenery, many about the characters he had met during the journey through the woods, and even one dark notebook about the horrifying things that had happened.

But he was searching for the thickest notebook, a peach thrown in the very back of the space under his bed. He finally snagged it and flipped through the book to the back. He grabbed a blue pen off of the desk and sprawled out on the floor to add to the poems about the little bluebird he still hoped counted him as a friend.


	2. Over the Garden Wall to Thee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thanks for reading you guys, especially since I haven't even really written anything yet! Its going to pick up some now, so stay tuned.

Wirt shook himself awake the next morning from more dreams about the Unknown. Some of them were more like nightmares, but this one had been relatively happy.

He suddenly remembered his conversation from the night before.

“Okay, I’ll go to the wall today. If its not snowing or raining or cold.” he said out loud to himself. “It needs to be really sunny and a beautiful day. Otherwise I’ll go some other time. Or never.”

He opened the window and naturally it was the warmest, most wonderful day all year. The grass had become greener overnight, things were growing on the trees, and the sun was shining down like this was the last day it had a chance to do so. He looked down and saw Greg trying to catch a baby rabbit in the yard, and his heart jumped a little as he spotted birds fluttering overhead.

“Well that didn’t work out as planned,” he grumbled. He grabbed a backpack from the end of his bed and began to pack as slowly as possible. He wasn’t about to wear that ridiculous outfit down to the graveyard, so he would just bring the hat and marching uniform. Also maybe a change of clothes in case he got his clothes wet. Plus a notebook and some pens. And he decided he might as well throw in a couple of snacks. And maybe a book.

He was debating whether or not to cram his clarinet into the stuffed backpack when he realized he might still have a way out after all. Maybe his mother had some errand for him to run. He raced downstairs just in time to see her grabbing her purse to head out the door.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. Look, I need you to take care of Gregory today. I got a last minute call from a high-priority patient, so I need to head over there right now. And Collin promised to help Mrs. Daniels with redecorating her kitchen.” Wirt’s mom was a well-known psychiatrist and his stepdad Collin used to be a interior decorator before Greg was born and he became a stay-at-home dad.

“Okay, so you probably don’t want us to go exploring today or anything. That’s perfectly fine by me! No problem there!” Wirt said, happy an excuse had presented itself.

“Did you want to go out? Because I think that would be a great idea! Its a beautiful day outside you know, and it would really be moving past your little incident. Yes take Greg and go exploring. Do something daring! Be safe of course, but put yourself out there! And have fun!” And with that she was out the door.

Wirt sighed. He had gotten even more than a go-ahead, now it was almost like a requirement to go. He knew his mom would ask him when she got home what he and Greg had done that day, so he needed something to tell her. And doing what Sara suggested by going over the wall seemed like a good a thing as any.

“Greg!” he hollered out the front door. “Greg, where are you?” He frowned and looked around when he finally spotted a small foot peeking out from under a bush. Wirt grinned and snuck up as quietly as possible and then grabbed Greg’s foot and pulled him out from under the bushes.

Greg burst into a fit of giggles and swatted weakly at Wirt’s hands. “No Wirt, I was in the middle of rabbit hunting!”

“We don’t have time for rabbit hunts! We’re going on an adventure.”

Greg’s eyes got big. “Like… a trip?”

“Possibly.”

“A trip to” Greg lowered his voice to a whisper “The Unknown?”

Wirt smiled a little. He had been incredibly reassured when he found out that Greg had all the same memories as he did. Either they had some wicked hallucinations or their adventure had really happened. He had sworn Greg to secrecy though so his mom wouldn’t get worried about him and his “overactive imagination” (which was already plenty active on its own). Wirt told Greg that if he told anyone else about their time in Unknown it would disappear forever and they wouldn’t be able to get back or even remember what had happened. Greg took this very seriously and hadn’t told a soul about any of the events as far as Wirt could tell. Sometimes though Wirt realized he almost believed this story as well.

“Maybe. We’ll see. I need you to pack some stuff though.”

“My overalls? And the teapot!” Greg said excitedly. “I think I know where Mom put them!”

He ran inside and Wirt followed him. He unpacked and repacked his backpack. He still wasn’t sure about trying to go back, but he felt a little better about it since all the signs seemed to be pointing in the right direction.

He went to Greg’s room and got a few warmer clothes for Greg as well, just in case. Wirt wasn’t sure why he was packing this much stuff but it helped him if he felt prepared.

He finally remembered his cell phone. His stepdad had convinced his mom to buy it for him after the Halloween Incident. She had been very anti-cellphone, always saying he needed to make friends the old fashioned way and not be constantly connected to everyone. And he hadn’t minded that much before. But Collin was sure that if they had a cellphone Halloween night none of the terrible things that had occurred would have happened. So his mom got him a cheap flip phone. Now he decided to stick it in his backpack along with all the other stuff he was bringing.

Greg showed up just then with the teapot. It was in surprisingly good shape considering all it had been through. Even if the whole Unknown thing had been some sort of terror-dream, the teapot had survived a drop from the wall, almost getting run over by a train, a tumble down a hill, and a fall into the river. Not to mention the rescue and ride to the hospital.

Thinking of all this, Wirt realized something else he needed to pack. He ran to the garage and grabbed a rope. He wasn’t about to scale a tree and jump off the back side of the wall again.

“You ready Greg?” he asked, taking a deep breath.

“Ready as ever!” said Greg, grabbing Jason Funderburker and making sure the frog had a change of clothes and his socks were on properly. Both his parents had thought it was bizarre Greg insisted on putting clothes on his new pet, but Wirt had stuck up for him and even helped him pick up new outfits at the store from baby and doll clothes.

“Alright lets go.” Wirt left a note on the table in case his stepdad came home from Mrs. Daniel’s early that read “Greg and I took up mom’s suggestion and went ‘exploring’. We’ll be back soon.”

They locked the front door behind them and walked the road to the graveyard. All the water from the previous day had dried up and gave the earth a healthy glow like it had recently taken a refreshing shower. Greg was the embodiment of life as they walked along, or in his case skipped. After the incident his little brother hardly bothered Wirt at all. Sure, he was still annoying and a bit clueless but now Wirt found it to be kind of adorable.

They finally made it to the graveyard. Neither Wirt nor Greg had seen this part of town since Halloween and they marvelled at how different it looked in the daylight.

“Okay this is kind of weird,” Wirt said as they walked through the gravestones to the wall. “But ever since that time with the pumpkins-you remember the pumpkins, right Greg?”

“Yeah! That one I got stuck on my foot! And you had one too!”

“Yeah... that. Anyway, ever since then I can’t help but to think-graveyards are kinda like gardens you know? Pumpkin gardens. Because all these dead people are just skeletons in the ground and one day they might rise up and become pumpkin people. But in the meantime they’re just kind of waiting and growing, or maybe the opposite of growing I guess, waiting to achieve full skeleton-ship so they can finally access their true final form.”

Greg blinked at Wirt. “Jason thinks you’re being weird.” he held up the frog who blinked in a perfect mirror as to how Greg blinked.

“Yeah I don’t actually know what I’m talking about sorry,” Wirt shook his head.

“Also a skeleton ship sounds pretty awesome!”

Wirt smiled and set down his backpack as the neared the tree they had climbed the last time. He marvelled at how tall it actually was. There must have been a serious adrenaline rush for them to climb it as fast as they had.

“Alright this might take a few tries,” Wirt said as he tied the rope into a lasso. He swung it above his head and noticed Greg’s eyes travelling in circles following the rope. Then he threw it at the tree. Immediately it grabbed hold of a branch and he was able to tug it taut.

“Wow. That was actually a lot easier than I expected,” Wirt commented, scratching his head.

“Its because you’re back in hero mode Wirt! You can do anything! You’re awesome!”

“Oh, uh… thanks Greg.”

Wirt decided he would climb the rope first. It wound up being a lot harder to climb a rope than he expected.

“Darn my stupid long arms and legs.” he whispered to himself while climbing. He thought they would make it easier for him to scale a rope, but instead it made it harder to get a good hold without looking stupid. Finally he made it to the top and sat on the wall to breathe.

“Okay Greg, tie yourself to the rope!” he called down when he had finally gotten some energy back.

Greg tied the rope around his torso and double-checked the knot. Then he held tight to his frog and gave Wirt a thumbs-up. Wirt pulled the rope up. Luckily neither Greg nor Jason Funderburker were very heavy, and it wasn’t long before they joined Wirt at the top. Wirt untied Greg and then let down the rope on the other side of the wall.

“Okay now we’ll just-” he was cut off by Greg’s loud “WEEEEE!” as he slid down the rope. Wirt frowned and then slid down after him. It was way easier going down than it was going up even though his hands hurt quite a lot.

He made sure Greg was off the tracks and didn’t roll down the hill before securing the rope so no one would move it or it wouldn’t get stuck on a passing train. Then they headed at a leisurely pace down the hill. It was steep going, but it was better than the uncomfortable rolling they had done the last time (though Greg really wanted to do some rolling for “the sake of the old times”)

They reached the river. It didn’t seem like a large river, but Wirt couldn’t see the other side. There was a warning sign saying that the water here was dangerous.

“Maybe we can just stand in it? That might do it.” Wirt suggested.

“Sure!” Greg agreed.

Wirt decided they didn’t need to take off their shoes, just in case. Wirt waded in calf-deep and the water came up to Greg’s waist. They both closed their eyes but something felt wrong to Wirt.

“I’m wet. I can feel its wet.” He didn’t remember much about the outgoing journey to the Unknown at all, but he could remember now that he didn’t feel wet. He walked out of the water and frowned. Greg watched him and followed suit.

“I don’t know what’s wrong. Was it just a dream after all? I really thought we could get back.” he muttered to himself.

“I didn’t tell anyone, I promise! I was so good!” Greg said. “Well. I did tell a ladybug I met the other day. Do you think that’s what did it? Wirt I’m so, so sorry!”

Greg buried his face in his hands. “No, that’s not it Greg,” Wirt said, patting him on the back to comfort him. “We’ll just have to try another way.”

He fished the cone hat out of the backpack along with the teapot. “Put this on.” he said, handing the pot to Greg. He stuck the red hat on his head. He couldn’t help but grin at Greg wearing the teapot again.

“Okay, take my hand.” Wirt was suddenly incredibly aware of everything happening around him. He could feel the wet, cool water in his socks. He could smell the water and the grass and the mud. He could hear the sound of a train getting closer on the tracks behind them. And he could see out of the corner of his eye the birds that he wished would stop flying overhead.

“Alright on three we’re going to jump as far out as we can go. Close your eyes.” he told Greg.

“One,” he whispered. He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Two!” yelled Greg next to him.

“Three,” they said together. As the jumped Wirt heard the train whistle loudly behind them. As they fell towards the water the sound disappeared and there was only silence.


	3. Leaving Alone Without Leaving a Letter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 is up and now we're in the good stuff. Prepare for more intrigue, mystery, and most importantly CHARACTERS.

Wirt quickly realized they had been falling for much longer than it should have taken their jump to hit the water. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see that they were standing in a clearing in a wood.

“Greg. Greg open your eyes. We did it!”

Greg peeked open one eye and looked unsure. Then he smiled, dropped Wirts hand, and starting running in circles around the clearing.

Wirt looked around in amazement. The Unknown looked different than the last time he had seen it, less real somehow. Maybe it was just him seeing it after believing for so long that he had made it up.

Suddenly it hit him what he had forgotten to think about. The last time they had been here it wasn’t for some joyous vacation. They had spent the entire time in this forest trying to find a way home. And he had just jumped back in without knowing the way back?

“Stupid stupid stupid,” he whispered to himself. He turned around to look at where they were and few feet behind him was a pond. Curious, he walked closer to the pond and peered into its depths.

The pond was a sky blue, which wouldn’t have been strange if they weren’t in a forest and there were trees all around with barely any sky visible. Wirt looked closer and saw a tiny plane in the pond which he first thought was some kind of fish.

“Greg! We can get back! This pond will take us back to our world!” He shouted happily. Greg wasn’t paying attention because he was too busy doing an elaborate waltz with Jason Funderburker.

Wirt decided they needed to make sure they could find this place so he got Greg to stop dancing for a bit so they could make some sort of landmark. He had an extra rope so he tied that it across the pond on two trees. Then he took his sweater off. He felt a little weird wearing his normal clothes in The Unknown. So he hung his maroon sweater over the rope and told Greg to do the same with the yellow rain jacket he had insisted on wearing. It wasn’t that cold in the forest, much better than it had been when they were here the last time and nearly froze to death. Then the boys both changed into their halloween costumes.

Wirt felt like a hero again when he put on the cape and even his stupid hat. He felt more alive than he had felt in a long time. He was going to go accomplish something.

The final landmarker they decided to use was their old socks. They changed into new clean ones. The rest of their clothes hadn’t gotten wet somehow from the jump in the lake, but their socks were still wet from the initial attempt. Wirt took these socks and climbed the nearest tree to tie the socks. He wanted to make sure they could easily see them from any tree they climbed.

When he was done he sat back to admire the scenery. There trees spanned much of the distance, but he could see roads they had traveled the last time and also the river on which they had taken the ferry. There was something different about The Unknown however though. Wirt finally realized there was an ominous mist around everything he could see. It was far enough away it didn’t worry him too much, but it was still strange.

He realized there was someone he forgot to tell about this trip. He pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open. He was surprised to see he got decent reception in The Unknown even though he was fairly certain there were no cell towers anywhere in this entire land.

He dialed and was disappointed to get her voicemail.

“Hey Sara. I just wanted to let you know I took your advice. I went over the wall at the graveyard and down to the lake. But there’s a bunch of stuff I didn’t tell you about that night because I thought it was just me hallucinating or something. Anyway, Greg and I jumped in the lake and wound up in this other world just like last time. So there’s some stuff I’m going to do here but then I’ll be back, okay? So um. Thanks for helping me do this. You’re the best. I- um. See ya later alligator.”

He flipped the phone shut and took a deep breath, pushing his hands into his palms into his eyes. Sara and he had been cool for a few months now, but he still got really nervous talking to her or calling her. He was worried all the time that he was going to make a fool of himself in front of her and she was going to remember that he was a loser.

He climbed back down the tree to see Greg using his teapot and some leaves as cups for a tea party.

“C’mon Greg, how about we go exploring?”

Greg put the teapot back on his head immediately without emptying it out so the water he had used for “tea” fell all over his hair. Then they decided to walk straight into the trees in front of the pond.

They wandered through the forest for what seemed like hours. There certainly was something different about the forest this time, but Wirt couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The last time they had been in the Unknown he had gotten a sense that the forest was alive somehow and there was a slight sense of danger. But he didn’t feel that this time.

“It must be because the Beast is gone,” he thought to himself. But while he felt that had something to do with it he wasn’t convinced that it was the whole issue.

Eventually the sun began to arc across the other side of the sky, Greg’s hair had dried, and Wirt began wondering where everything and everyone was. Last time it had only taken them about 45 minutes before they saw the woodcutter. But this time they didn’t hear so much as a talking- no, Wirt said to himself, shaking his head. Even here, he would not think about that.

Even Greg, who never stopped being positive, was beginning to complain about his feet hurting when they finally saw something in the distance.

“Look, that’s familiar!” Greg shouted. The boy ran with his short legs into the open field where the small schoolhouse was located. “Its Ms. Whatsername’s!”

Sure enough, they had found Ms. Langtree’s school for animals. Wirt smiled at seeing a place he remembered so well, especially a place where he had first felt a bit like a hero (even though it was an accident).

They boys walked around the schoolyard and noticed the stage where the animals had put on their performance was still there. However, the banner that read “Money for School” had fallen down so it hung limply across the platform. Both the cloth and the wood seemed to be falling apart. Nothing looked like it had been used in months.

“What… what happened here?” Wirt asked, looking around in confusion.

Greg was wandering around in the surrounding trees.

“They’re gone!” he shouted, running back. He panted a bit and then explained “I can’t find any of the animals even the outcasts!”

“Well where could they have gone?” Wirt muttered, walking towards the school. It too was in a state of disrepair. The chalkboard still had writing on it but it was blurred and parts of it were blown away by drafts. There was mold in the dunce box. A couple of the desks had fallen over. And when they walked into the lunchroom Greg let out a horrified gasp.

“Oh nooooo!” He cried.

“What? What’s wrong?!” Wirt asked worriedly. Greg pointed a finger and poked out his lip. “The molasses,” he said sadly.

The beloved molasses sat toppled over on the piano, dried drips splattering the side and the keys.

Wirt sat down at one of the tables and looked around the room to think.

“Okay, what could have happened here? They had plenty of money to keep the school open, even if it was a rather idiotic idea for a school. Why would they all leave? I just don’t understand it.”

“Maybe they realized school was for suckers?” Greg asked, sitting in the seat across from him and crossing his hands like he was in a serious business meeting.

Wirt frowned and shook his head. Maybe Ms. Langree had gotten married to Jimmy Brown and decided to quit teaching? Or possibly the animals had decided to form a traveling band?

Wirt turned his head to look out the window while thinking and saw something a little strange. The stream outside had an eerily dark hue to it.

“Hey Greg wait here. I’m going to go check something out.” He got up to leave but before he left the room he made sure to turn around and say sternly “and DON’T eat any of that molasses.”

“Aw man!” Greg sighed. “Its probably still delicious, just crunchier!”

“No!” He pointed at Jason. “Make sure Greg doesn’t eat it”

Funderburker gave him a short nod. Wirt left the schoolhouse and walked over to the stream. He peered in the water and it definitely was much too dark for normal water. On closer inspection he noticed that there seemed to be ripples in the water though there was nothing actually disturbing it.

“There’s nothing disturbing it… on this side” Wirt realized with awe. “Greg!”

There was no response so he went back inside the school building and saw Greg and Jason Funderburker using pencils as swords in an intense swordfight over the dried molasses. The frog was winning by a landslide. Wirt watched as Jason made a lunge and stabbed the pencil into Greg’s armpit. Greg spun around dramatically while groaning, fell over backwards and then flipped onto his stomach where he pretended to die.

“Hey Greg,” Wirt started.

“Greg has been stabbed, he can’t come to the phone right now” Greg muttered into the ground.

“Oh sorry,” Old Wirt would have just been annoyed and told Greg to stop being stupid and get up, but now he knew how to deal with his brother now. He ran outside and tore a strip of the “Money for School” sign off. Then he went back inside where Greg was still on the ground (though had visibly moved a bit) and wrapped the cloth around his body.

“There you go Greg, you’re fixed now. Good as new.”

Greg hopped up. “‘Kay, where we going?”

Wirt led him outside to the stream and showed him how the water looked different.

“Yeah that’s weird it wasn’t like that last time,” he agreed.

“I’m thinking it might be like another portal thingy like the lake was to the Unknown. Like maybe this leads to another place in our world.”

“Yeah like they’re toilets!”

“Um sure Greg. Toilets. But more sanitary and less a confusing metaphor.”

“So do we jump in this one too?” Greg asked. Wirt shrugged.

“I don’t see why not. We’ll just come back here if it leads to anywhere weird. And maybe we’ll find some answers to what happened to all of the animals and the Langtrees.”

Greg nodded and put on a determined look. “Lets do it.” he growled.

“Oh-okay.” Wirt fastened on the backpack securely and took a deep breath.

They closed their eyes and for a second time today jumped.

The first thing Wirt noticed was that he was very wet. He opened his eyes half expecting it to not work this time and for them to be standing in the stream, but instead saw the cause of the water was rain falling in sheets upon a prairie he had never seen before. A little while away was an old wooden house.

“Greg I have a feeling we’re not _not_ in Kansas anymore,” He said quietly.


	4. "C", See What He Did, That's "D"

Wirt decided he needed to find out where they were, but more than that they needed to get out of the rain. He grabbed Greg’s hand and pulled him away from a very shallow pool of water to the cover of the house’s front porch. The rain was really pouring, and Wirt’s hat did the opposite of provide a nice canopy. The water curved down the sides of the cone and splattered out the edges all over his clothes and in a circle around him. He got really wet, but Greg next to him probably got the majority of the waterfall.

They finally made it on the porch and stopped to catch their breath.

“Where are we?” Greg asked after heavily breathing.

Wirt took off his hat and wrung it out. Water poured off of the fabric. He glanced around.

“I have no idea. But something doesn’t seem right about this place.”

Greg took the teapot off his head and shook it out while Wirt took off his coat to wring that out. “Guess we should find out!” He said, and knocked on the door.

“Greg no!” Wirt yelled but it was too late. There was movement to be heard inside and the door was answered by a familiar face.

“Can I help you?” said a southern drawl.

“Oh, um. Hello, Ms. Langtree.” Wirt said awkwardly.

“Do I know you?” she asked looking confused. Wirt was worried. Did she not remember them? What if no one in the Unknown remembered them? But he was getting worked up over nothing because realization dawned across her features. “Oh, you boys were those lovely young men who helped save my school! Though I remember y’all as being little troublemakers.” She smiled at them sweetly.

“Uh, yes that was us.” Wirt said.

“And Wirt saved you from a gorilla!” Greg added.

“Oh yes, how could I have forgotten that you’re the cause for my current happiness?” She smiled even more broadly. “Oh, I must have left my manners in bed this mornin’. Please, come in out of this rain!”

The Southern Bell led them into the kitchen area of the little two-room cottage. There was food on the table for two. A blonde mustached man was sitting eating on his side of the table.

“Who is it darlin’?” he asked, turning to see Ms. Langtree walk in with the boys following. He squinted and then pointed. “That’s the fella that freed me from the gorilla suit!”

Ms. Langtree nodded and smiled. “They’re gonna eat supper with us this afternoon.”

Jimmy Brown pulled up some chairs to the table while she went into the kitchen to grab some more food for the boys.

“Um, thank you,” Wirt muttered, sitting down.

“So, how did you boys get to be out in this terrible storm?” she asked from the kitchen where she was filling plates.

“Now Marie, you know this rain is good for us!” Mr. Brown scolded.

“Not when the roof leaks!” she replied.

“I’ll get around to fixing that leak eventually,” he promised. Then he turned to Greg. “But yes, how did you get out here?”

Greg opened his mouth to tell him, but Wirt jumped in quickly.

“We were in town and decided to um, explore the woods. But then it started raining so… uh yeah.”

Jimmy frowned. “This rain’s been going for two days.”

“Well, I mean it wasn’t… um raining too hard earlier so we thought we’d go outside and play in the puddles… um… but then it started raining harder?” Wirt said, flustered.

“Oh, I miss talking to children!” Ms. Langtree said, bringing in the food. She put down a hot plate in front of Greg and then put the other one in front of Wirt.

“Don’t you still teach, Ms. Langtree?” Wirt asked, trying to get the conversation off their mysterious appearance.

“Oh its Mrs. Brown now, honey.” She said, sitting down and holding up her hand so you could see her rings. “And no, er-I have more important things to attend to now.”

“Women don’t need to work once their married! She has me now!” Jimmy Brown said, smiling and taking her hand. She smiled back at him.

Wirt frowned and narrowed his eyes. “Why that’s ridiculous. My mom works still, and she’s been married for a while now.”

“Really?” said Marie Brown, looking interested. “What does she do?”

“Oh, she’s a psychiatrist.”

The couple blinked at him blankly.

“You know, sort of like a doctor for people’s minds?”

“Like she works at an asylum?” Mrs. Brown asked.

“Oh, your mother’s one of them travelling salespeople!” Jimmy said. “See that’s different. Its a family business, your mom needs to work! But all my baby has to do is stay home and be happy. Right honey?”

“Right,” said his wife, though she looked a little unsure.

Wirt thought about this and looked around. “Wait wait wait. What’s today?”

Mrs. Brown looked a little concerned. “Its Saturday, the third of April, sweetie. Why?”

Wirt nodded. That was normal. “Um, what year is it again? Just checking. I feel like today is a weird date.”

“1857,” Jimmy answered.

Wirt tried to hide his surprise. “Oh, uh yeah that’s it. My uncle’s 38th birthday is today.”

“Wait, how can it be 1857 if yesterday in school it was-” Greg started saying slowly, but got cut off quickly by a kick from Wirt.

“So what do you do now that you don’t teach?” he asked hurriedly.

“Oh, you know. Cook. Clean. I’ve joined a women’s choir at the church.”

“Fascinating stuff.” Wirt picked up his fork and began eating the supper. It was an exceptionally mediocre meal. He noticed despite the so-so food, Greg had already licked his plate clean. The boy was literally using his tongue to wash his plate at the moment.

They ate in silence for a bit and then Wirt realized there was something else he needed to ask about.

“So have you guys noticed anything strange about that pond out back? Because Greg and I were looking at it when it started to rain again and there was something weird about it.”

The newlyweds exchanged a nervous glance and simultaneously set down their forks.

“Well son,” said Jimmy Brown. “There _was_ something strange that happened a few months ago. It was probably three or four days after you freed me from that gorilla costume.”

“I don’t really know what happened but we were just enjoying a nice evening stroll and talking about our plans for the future when suddenly we woke up in that puddle in the back.” Mrs. Brown explained. “It was right by Jimmy’s house, which was strange because I had forgotten he even had a house here.” She looked a little confused, so Mr. Brown continued for her.

“Anyway my baby and I decided to just forget the whole incident. Not to mention the ‘teach animals to read’ thing.”

“Yes, I still don’t understand why my father or I thought that was a good idea,” the former Ms. Langtree said, still looking a little confused.

“I think that was just a weird time in our lives,” her husband replied, patting her hand.

Wirt didn’t know what any of this really meant, but he decided they had lingered long enough.

“Okay, I think the rain has let up some so we need to get back. Uncle’s birthday and all,” Wirt said, standing up and pulling Greg up as well. Greg dropped the food he had been stealing from Wirt’s plate.

“Aw, too bad. It was nice to see y’all! Let me pack you some of this food, I’m sure your brother could eat more.” Marie said, winking at Greg.

“I need to see if I can go fix that roof,” Jimmy said, also standing up. He left the room and his wife began putting pieces of the food in mason jars.

“So you really don’t want to be a teacher anymore?” Greg asked while Wirt frowned at her food preservation methods.

“Well, heh,” she giggled nervously. “I really liked teaching but Jimmy doesn’t really want me to do it anymore.”

“Don’t let him stop you! Live your dreams!” Greg shouted while standing on top of a chair and waving a wooden spoon.

“Oh. You think so?”

“Yeah! If he doesn’t like it, too bad!”

“Hmm. Well I’m glad I left such an impression on a student!”

“Yeah I’m very impressioned! You were the best teacher!” Greg said. Wirt shot him a look. “You didn’t even go to her class,” he hissed in his brother’s ear.

“I’m raising her self esteem,” Greg whispered back.

She blushed. “Thank you, Greg.” she handed him a jar full of stewed carrots.

“Welp. Bye Ms. Lang-Mrs. Brown,” Wirt said, steering Greg out of the kitchen. As they left Jimmy Brown came back in with tools. Marie Brown came out of the kitchen and they heard her say “Jimmy I want to go back to teaching. Now don’t say no, its what I intend to do.”

“Well your lies seem to work on her.” Wirt said to Greg as they stepped back into the rain.

“I didn’t mean to lie,” Greg protested, seeming hurt.

“Don’t worry, its fine. Sometimes you have to tell people what they need to hear for their own good,” Wirt explained. “Lies are like a vaccine, they are necessary to keep you from a worse fate but everyone hates them in theory more than the sickness.”

“Wow that was great. You’re really smart.” Greg said seriously.

“Wait, really?” Wirt said, looking at his brother in the rain. Greg never liked his poetry or metaphors. Maybe his little brother was finally growing up.

“Nah, I’m just lying necessarily to make you feel better,” Greg whispered.

Wirt scowled. They reached the shallow water in the back. Getting used to it now, they both closed their eyes and jumped.

They appeared back into the eerily silent forest. Maybe that was what was different. The Unknown was strangely silent. There wasn’t a single creature rustling in the woods, no people talking, and no sound of birds.

“Greg, do you think we should-” Wirt was cut off by a loud crash in the woods.

“What was that?” Greg asked.

“I don’t know but I think we should avoid whatever it was.” he replied. But he looked down and Greg was already off running towards the source of the sound.

“Greg, no!” he shouted. He took a deep breath and chased after his brother.


	5. By a House Near a Stream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a shorter chapter, I decided I needed to split this one into two. I'm loving the feedback, please continue commenting or adding kudos!

Wirt crashed through the trees and underbrush but Greg was much faster. He felt like he was miles behind the smaller kid who could easily avoid the forest’s brambles and branches. Wirt tripped multiple times, and was worried that he would lose Greg in the time it took him to get back up but he was able to spot the rustle that was his brother. All the while he yelled Greg’s name and realized that if they were trying to avoid whatever had made the noise in the wood it was probably very aware of their presence.

There was suddenly a steep incline and Wirt tripped again, rolling down the hill to land right where Greg was standing looking at a familiar house.

“Hey wait. This is the Woodsman’s mill.” Wirt said while picking himself up from the ground.

“Oh yeah, I knew it looked familiar!” Greg said from where he was standing. “What happened to it?”

“I think _we_ happened to it,” Wirt replied. The mill still had a broken roof and the wheel was laying on its side. There were still small puddles of oil on a majority of the building. Besides the mess caused by fighting a giant demonic dog, the whole house was beginning to fall apart like the schoolhouse was doing.

“Do you think the Woodsman is here?” he whispered, suddenly realizing that maybe the old man wouldn’t be too happy to see them since they kind of ruined his life. He wasn’t sure what terms they had parted on. “Maybe we should just quietly walk away and hope that he didn’t hear-”

“BOYS!” shouted a voice from the stream near the broken wheel. Wirt jumped and Greg backed up a few steps.

The Woodsman came into view. The old man looked very different, much happier and less troubled. But he still gave them a worried look.

“What are you two up to? Why are you here?” he asked urgently once he got closer. Wirt and Greg both were frozen, and they were unable to even mutter something.

“You haven’t been here the whole time, have you? In the forest I mean?”

Wirt shook his head, “No we just got here today. Well we just got back. We wound up going home but then we found a way back because I um… had some things to take care of. Yeah.”

“That was a very dangerous thing to do, you shouldn’t have come back to a place like this,” the man said gruffly, shaking his finger.

“W-why? It seems to be pretty quiet here now, and we can get back easily, I don’t know if you know but there’s these portal things-”

“Of course I know about the Entrance Pools, how do you think I got here?! You better come with me.”

Wirt was a little wary about following a stranger, especially one who they had spent most of those days in the Unknown fighting against. But Greg went ahead and followed the Woodsman’s instruction so he didn’t have much of a choice. Besides, the man was the only person they had seen _in_ The Unknown and he seemed to know more than they did about what was going on. They might be able to learn something.

The Woodsman led them around the back of the mill and to a spot in the stream. There was another one of the strange spots in the water and Wirt knew this must be the portal to where the Woodsman lived. The man stepped into it and disappeared. Greg realized that they could probably just leave since they were no longer being watched. But curiosity got the best of him so he grabbed Greg’s hand and stepped in after him.

They appeared in front of a cozy log cabin not unlike the one in the Unknown. There was a sawmill next to the portal in the river instead of an oil mill. Wirt glanced over at the Woodsman and noticed he looked much happier now they were out of the woods and at his home.

They started towards the house and a young girl came outside.

“Thank goodness you’re home father, I was trying to fix the gear on the waterwheel and it did that thing again!” The girl said, throwing her hands in the hair. She was wearing an apron and a dress like an old-time housewife but her hands were rough, the bottom of her dress was filthy, and her face was smudged with oil and grime. Her mousy brown hair was a mess and she looked surprised when she saw her father wasn’t alone.

“Oh. Hello.” she said politely to the boys while glancing at her father questionly.

“These are boys that helped me er- find my way home when I got lost, sweetheart,” the Woodsman explained. “They were in town again so I thought I would invite them over for a bit.”

She smiled at them and nodded. “Okay, I guess you can get the parts down from the top of the barn later. I really wish it would stop backspinning and shooting them up there, I just can’t reach them even if I use the ladder. I’ll go draw some water, I need a bath. Enjoy your company!”

She grabbed a bucket from the porch and skipped away.

“That’s my daughter,” the Woodsman said while they walked into the house. “She has an interesting spirit, but I love her with all my heart.”

They sat down at a table in the back of the house. The Woodsman unlocked a nearby cabinet and took out a map. He spread it out across the table. Wirt leaned in and read the writing across the top that said “The Unknown.” There were many landmarks on the hand-drawn map he recognized and a few he didn’t. Black dots also were scattered across the map.

“I’ve mapped out all of the Entrance Pools I’ve seen. Here’s the one we just went through.” He pointed to a spot on the river.

“I think that’s where we got in,” Wirt said while pointing to one of the black dots on the map. “And that’s the one we went to where we saw Ms. Langtree and her new husband.”

“You’ve gone through other ones?” the Woodsman asked. Greg nodded from the chair he was in. The table was so tall you could only see his eyes and forehead when he sat down.

“Well you boys need to head back to yours as soon as possible,” The Woodsman said urgently.

“But why? Is there something dangerous in the woods? I thought you got rid of The Beast.” Wirt said, confused.

“The Beast _is_ gone. That’s the problem.” the old man said.

“What?” Both of the boys were even more confused now.

He sighed. “When I first got back I didn’t understand how I got here. Don’t get me wrong, I was very glad I was back. But soon I found the Entrance Pool and realized there were questions I still had. So I went back to The Unknown, but it was different this time. I’m sure you noticed.”

Wirt nodded. “Its really quiet this time around. And there’s just a weird feeling in the air.”

The Woodsman grunted in agreement. “So I did some looking into matters. It turns out everyone was gone. Every person, child, witch, pumpkin creature, weirdo, and animal, talking or otherwise, was missing. As far as I can tell when we destroyed The Beast it automatically ejected everyone that had ever wandered into that world by accident back into the world they were originally from.

“But here’s where it gets even more complicated. Before The Beast was destroyed, if someone came to The Unknown there was no way back. The Beast set up a trapping system so the souls that wandered in couldn’t find the ways out. He transfigured all the-”portals” as you called them-into evil wandering beasts, never to settle down long enough for them to make it possible for anyone to use it to get back to their homeworlds.

“Wait. Is there any chance that those evil beasts were those black turtles that were always around?” Wirt asked, eyes wide with realization.

“That’s exactly what they were. Nasty things were everywhere. Anyway, once The Beast was gone the magic that kept the exits as turtles quickly wore off. So that’s where all the Entrance Pools came from. Wherever a turtle touched water it transformed into a Pool. So everyone was now free to go to and from the Unknown as they pleased.”

“I’m failing to see the issue here? Like the reason we need to go home? Isn’t it a good thing that now we have a way between worlds? I think its cool we can freely travel to see other people!” Wirt said.

“No boy, that’s not the issue. I’m getting to that. The problem is still The Beast. Originally that horrible creature was supposed to be a guardian of that wood. But he turned evil over the years and began feasting off the souls of the visitors to his forest. Soon he couldn’t survive without them feeding his soul. So you two helped me realize how to destroy his soul, which initially seems like a good thing. But his original purpose as the protector and keeper of the woods was still in place. He was so ingrained in The Unknown he was almost like the physical embodiment of that place. Therefore in destroying him we unknowingly sealed the fate of that world itself. There’s only a week or so left for it now, possibly less.”

“Wait, what?” Wirt couldn’t quite understand what he was trying to say but it sounded like bad news.

“The Unknown is dying, boys. We killed it and soon it will be no more.”


	6. Where Shall We End?

Wirt couldn’t say anything at first. “How-how long do we have left?” he finally stuttered out.

“A few days maximum,” the Woodsman said, getting up. “That’s why I have to get you two back to where you came from. This was the Entrance Pool you came from?” he asked, pointing at the map.

“Yeah, that’s it,” said Greg, peeking over the table to look at the spot he was pointing at. “What would happen to you if you’re in The Unknown when it dies?”

“Terrible things. You would be stuck in a dying world, and it would steadily grow small until you no longer fit in it. The world would close in on you and you would cease to exist, but in the most painful way possible.”

“Cool,” Greg said.

“Boys, let me grab some things and then we’ll leave.” The woodcutter left the room.

“Greg we can’t leave the Unknown yet. We haven’t done what I came for.” Wirt said worriedly as soon as he was out of earshot.

“Okay, we won’t leave then,” he stated simply. Wirt smiled. It was nice that his brother didn’t ask questions sometimes.

“The thing is I don’t think he’ll just let us go back to the forest to wander around some more. So should we sneak out of here?”

“Yes, let’s be ninjas.” Greg slunk out of his chair and started army crawling under the table. He hit his head on one of the legs.

“Ow.”

“You’re terrible at sneaking.” Wirt went to the door and looked both ways. “Okay coast is clear, let’s go.” He said to Greg who was now standing up rubbing a spot on his head. He turned back around and saw the Woodsman’s daughter was standing in the hallway now with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

“Just where do you think you’re going?” She asked.

“Um, nowhere I was just-how long have you been standing there?”

“I’ve been standing _here_ twenty seconds. But I heard your entire conversation. And I don’t like your little plan.”

“Has he even told you about The Unknown?” Wirt asked, gesturing in the direction the Woodsman went. “I got the feeling he was trying to keep it from you.”

She made a face. “Oh, you think my father would go missing for two months and I wouldn’t try to figure out why he was gone and came back looking 10 years older? No, I’ve done some “sneaking” myself. I know he goes through that spot in the river and arrives in some other world. I know time travels differently there. He’ll be underwater for like a second but come back with handfuls of supplies or wood or something. He may think I don’t notice, but I’ve seen it happen.”

“Hm fascinating. Well that’s good to know, we’ll just be on our-” Wirt tried to walk around her and Greg tried to slip by on the other side but she snatched the back of his overalls and pushed Wirt back into the wall.

“No, I don’t think so. You see, if you escape, my father is going to feel obligated to come look for you. And I don’t need him wandering around in this ‘Unknown’ when it closes up. I _do_ need to make sure he is can to come home this time. So you need to just go with him, do what he says, and never come to here or The Unknown again,” she threatened. “Otherwise he’ll come after you, and I promise I won’t be far behind.” She gave Wirt a glare and he knew this was not someone to be messed with.

There was a noise down the hallway and the girl quickly shoved Greg into Wirts chest like she was returning an unwanted gift. Then she took a step back, turned around, and smiled at her father who was coming around the corner.

“Connie? I thought that you were going to wash up!”

She shook her head and smiled sweetly. “No, I realized it was rude to leave our guests unattended and not even properly introduce myself. Are you leaving?”

“Yes we’ll just be gone for a little while. I’m just going to walk these boys home.”

“Alright father. See you soon.” she kissed him on the cheek, glared at Wirt over his shoulder, and walked away.

“She’s a real sweet girl,” The Woodsman told the boys,

The Woodsman led the boys back to the Entrance Pool and he jumped in first, followed by them.

“Okay boys,” he pulled out the map. “Let’s get you home.”

They started the trek through the forest in silence. Wirt’s brain was working a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out how they could get out of this. He needed to search more of the pools before it was too late. He glanced at Greg to see if he had a plan but the boy seemed to be preoccupied with watching the light filtering through the trees.

There were a few times when Wirt felt like there was something watching him. He had felt the feeling before in these woods, at first when Beatrice was following them and later when they were being watched by The Beast. He had a feeling this time it was the forest itself.

“It knows we’re responsible for its murder,” he whispered in awe. Unreasonably, his biggest worry became that the forest was going to try to enact revenge on their little gang. Every twitch of a tree or breaking of a branch as they walked made him jump. He had nearly forgotten the real problem by the time they reached the pool that was marked off by rope but it suddenly came crashing back.

“Alright, through you go. I’ll wait here a bit to make sure you don’t come back for some reason,” The Woodsman said gruffly. “Be safe boys.” He nudged Wirt toward the pool. The boy began breathing quickly. It was too late. There was no plan. He didn’t know how he would ever find Beatrice now.

Suddenly there was a yelp and a small hand grabbed his own. Greg pulled Wirt away from the pool and shouted “Run!” Obediently the older boy ran alongside his brother until they were far enough from the pool.

Back in action mode, Wirt pushed Greg up into a tree and climbed after him. They pushed themselves against the trunk and were very quiet. They Woodsman wandered by a little while away, muttering under his breath and searching the bushes, but he soon left.

“What did you do?” Wirt whispered once they were sure he wasn’t coming back.

“You know, the old kickeroo! Its worked a billion times before!”

“Greg, you’re a genius.” Wirt replied, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that remarkably simple plan. “Okay, now we have to find more of those pools. And we have to hurry because of the whole this-place-is-going-to-shut-down thing. Do you remember the spots on that map he showed us?”

“No,” Greg shook his head sadly. “But we could just look at the map.” The kid pulled the Woodsman’s map out of his pants.

Wirt stared in amazement for possibly too long, because Greg tried to explain himself.

“I know I decided stealing was bad but this was important. Plus, I payed him for it! I gave him half the food that Mrs. Langtree gave us. I slipped it out of your backpack when we were walking. But I’m sorry, you probably think it was wrong.” He pouted.

“No, no, Greg, you did amazing!” Wirt took the map and spread it out on a branch, hooking one leg on each side so that he would remain steady.

“Okay, I think this one’s closest to where we are right now,” he said, pointing to a spot after studying the map. “We’ll just head over there and see what is to be found.”

“Yeah! A quest!” Greg shouted, climbing down from the tree.

“But we have to make sure to watch out for the Woodsman. Remember, he could still be in here looking for us,” Wirt reminded his brother.

“Okay. Jason Funderburker can be on the lookout.” Greg put the frog on top of his teapot hat and the amphibian stood like a sentry, looking about every which way.

They travelled through the woods and Wirt noticed the feeling the forest was watching him was gone now. Maybe it was because he had purpose and hope again, but the feeling that every tree was out to get him was missing.

The map lead to a large clearing in the woods. There was a huge pile of ash and a ways behind it a small lake where the Entrance Pool was.

“What happened here?” Greg asked, pointing to the ash.

“I have no idea. Where we here before? It seems familiar, but I can’t place it. Maybe something was here but it burned down?”

“Only one way to find out! Let’s see who lived here!” Greg jumped into the lake and Wirt sighed and followed him, hoping that they wouldn’t have to do this too many more times.

They appeared next to a similar lake, but instead of ashes and ruins this one was across from a building Wirt recognized.

“Oh no, no, no,” he grimaced. “C’mon Greg, let’s go. Nothing to see here. Let’s leave before-”

“No, we have to go say hello!” Greg said happily, walking towards the building.

Wirt put his hands on top of his head and took a deep breath. Then he followed his brother murmuring “Anyone but them. If only it was anyone but them.”


	7. You Cross My Path, I'll Knock You Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one, I'm sorry. Its been a crazy week.

“Hello everyone, we’re back!” said Wirt after walking in the door. “Its me, The Pilgrim. Also my brother. I guess he didn’t really get a cool descriptive name. But yeah, we’re here. Please, don’t ask me to sing again. I can just tell my fascinating stories to you, if you must hear them.” Wirt puffed up his chest a little and expected everyone to get excited about his arrival.

The people in the tavern stared back at him, almost in fear. There was a crash and the Tavern Keeper can rushing around the corner.

“What are you doing here Pilgrim?” she whispered in her squeaky voice. “You should not have come back.”

Wirt looked confused. “Why? I thought you guys liked me now.”

“Yeah, remember? Wirt’s the hero!” Greg added. The boy motioned sword fighting and heroic stances to get the point across.

“Yes, I know that, but heroes have _enemies_!” she whispered, making sure to squeak especially loud at the word “enemies”.

Wirt glanced around suspiciously. “Of whom are you speaking?”

“The Thie-Highwayman,” she said, pulling the boys off to the side. “Last time you were here you stole his horse. You can’t have a Highwayman without a horse, you know. So you demoted him to a common Thief. And he didn’t take very kindly to that. He’s sworn to taking back what is his.”

“But I don’t have the horse anymore!” Wirt protested.

“His name is Fred, Wirt!” Greg said sternly, looking highly offended.

“Whatever! The point is, we don’t have him, we can’t return him to the Highwayman.”

“Then you better get out of here quick.” said the Tavern Keeper. “He’s not going to be happy to hear that at all. And you won’t like the Highwayman when he’s angry.”

“Not real sure I liked him when he _wasn’t_ angry.” Wirt muttered to himself.

“Okay, let’s go then.” Greg grabbed his hand and walked towards the door. “Bye Tavern Keeper. Bye Midwife. Bye Tailor. Bye Person I Haven’t Met. Bye Butcher. Bye Person I’m Assuming is a Doctor. Bye Lumberjack-I like your beard. Bye-”

Greg’s forever goodbye was interrupted by the door slamming open. The Toymaker, who was the closest to the boys at the moment, quickly grabbed them and stuffed them into a pair of nearby barrels.

Wirt wound up being upside-down in his barrel. While uncomfortable, his neck in an odd position actually made it easier to see through a small hole at the bottom of the barrel that seemed to point towards all the action.

The Highwayman himself had just walked into the building. Everyone was staring at him in fear. The Tailor had actually started crying. The Master kept glancing nervously at the barrels, and Wirt tried to will him with his mind not to look so suspicious. The Highwayman seemed oblivious to everyone’s odd behavior. He simply walked over to a table, sat down, and motioned at the Tavern Keeper to bring him something to eat.

As soon as he was seated the whispering started. It was like some sort of comedic play, with everyone turning to the person on one side of them and whispering and then turning to the other side and whispering.

The Highwayman got his food and everyone stopped their murmuring to stare intently at him while he ate. Again, the Highwayman didn’t seem to notice.

Wirt noticed the Tavern Keeper walked over and said something urgently to the Butcher in a low voice (which was very difficult for her). The Butcher nodded and walked over to the barrels.

“ _Butcher. What are you doing. No stop. Stop right there. Don’t-_ ” Wirt hissed. The Butcher seemed to be unable to hear him though because he simply picked up the barrel he was hidden in and hefted it sideways over his shoulder. Wirt slid a bit and hit his face on the side of the barrel. He let out a small yelp and hoped no one noticed. No longer able to see what was happening, he deduced due the the swaying of the barrel that the Butcher was carrying him someplace.

“Thank you so much for helping me carry those, I just can’t do it myself anymore!” The Tavern Keeper squeaked loudly.

Wirt could hear them go through at least one door and then the world turned again and he was dumped unceremoniously from the barrel. He tumbled onto some grass behind the tavern. Greg landed next to him a few seconds later, shaken out of his barrel by the Midwife.

“Okay, now you two need to get back to wherever it was you came from.” The Tavern Keeper said with her hands on her hips. “I hope you boys will be okay.”

She turned to go back to her tavern and the Midwife and Butcher followed her. Wirt stood up shakily and rubbed his neck. Greg sat up and stumbled around a little before getting his footing.

Suddenly there was high-pitched shouting.

“No, no, its fine I don’t need those barrels! I can move those later!” came the shriek.

“No, I’m helping.” grunted a low familiar voice.

Before they had time to hide again, the Highwayman rounded the corner, followed by a frantic Tavern Keeper.

“YOU!” the man roared. Wirt and Greg froze and stared unblinkingly back at the masked man.

“YOU’LL RETURN ME MY HORSE BOY.” he stated. It was said like a fact, not a request.

“Well, um, sir, you see, I kind of don’t have it. Fred-your horse-he decided to get work as a tea deliverer. So I wasn’t really in charge of that decision. Not my fault, you see. Plus, I didn’t realize he was your horse.”

“YOU’LL RETURN ME MY HORSE BOY.” he yelled again.

“Um, I think we’ll just leave.” Wirt backed away slowly and realized Greg was already twenty steps ahead of him.

“You may leave, but I _will_ find you,” The Highwayman said.

Wirt made a sound like “Hehehugmphrrruh” and sprinted towards the lake. He ran quickly enough that he caught up with Greg and they jumped into the Entrance Pool at the same time.

“Phew.” Greg said once they were safe. “That sure was a close one.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than The Highwayman appeared in this end of the Pool.

“YOU’LL RETURN MY HORSE BOY.”

“Good gravy!” Wirt shouted. Then he and Greg took off into the woods again.

Wirt couldn’t see any trees with low enough branches so they weren’t able to pull the tree stunt again. But he finally spotted a bush that they were able to fit nicely into to get out of sight.

“So I feel we almost need to make a list to keep straight who all is after us now.” Wirt said after he caught his breath.

Greg got a stick and started writing out people in the dirt.

“No Greg, I was-”

“So we’ve got the Woodsman, and the Highwayman, and let’s go ahead and add the Woodsman’s Daughter because I’m sure she’s coming for us soon too. What was her name, Connie or something? How do you spell that?”

“Greg we don’t really need a list.” Wirt leaned back and sighed. “I really hope we can find what I’m looking for before we meet more dangerous people.” he looked wistfully up at the trees overhead. “How long do you think we have until this place dies off?”

“I don’t know, but we need to keep exploring! We have at least 14 more pools to hit!” Greg said, pulling out the map and pointing at it.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Let’s go.” Wirt got up and the boys both marched in the direction of the next portal.


	8. Our Livelihood's at Stake So Don't You Dare Go Change Your Mind

“I don’t understand what we’re looking at here,” Wirt said, staring into a pool. “Is this like a donut pond or something. And what _is_ that thing?”

On the Unknown side, the pond they were staring into didn’t make much sense at all. It was just a normal mud puddle, but there were intricate marble sides on the other side. And there was a round cement block in the center full of which must have been pipes. Farther away, there were white hands protruding out of the round thing, too many hands to be one person.

“I guess its some kind of fountain?” Wirt asked.

“Or a monster!” Greg said.

“Or a monster, sure. Okay, when we jump in let’s make sure we jump to the sides of the middle thingy. I don’t want us to wind up underneath a concrete slab of some Hindu god.

They each took a seperate side and jumped in. Wirt opened his eyes and noticed they were in a town square. Sure enough, he and his brother were standing in a fountain. The figure in the center was a group of five or six people all standing back to back with their hands outstretched, and the water poured from their hands back into the pool.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before the police try to arrest us or something.” Wirt said, trudging around to the other side to pull his brother out.

“Those police?” Greg asked, pointing at a group of cops standing aggressively on one side of the square. They weren’t paying attention to the boys however. They had bigger matters on their hands.

In the distance there appeared to be some kind of protest or rally happening. People were carrying signs, some were shouting, and some were singing. They did not look happy in any way.

“Oh cool, a parade!” Greg said. He hopped out of the water and stood on the edge so he could more easily see the crowd.

“I don’t think that’s a parade, Greg. Not at all.” Wirt looked around uncertainly. Where were they? _When_ were they? He looked back at the protesters, squinting to see their signs. Maybe he could figure it out if he could find out what they were protesting.

However, it was clear he would find out soon enough. The crowd was marching right towards the fountain they were still standing in.

“Come on Greg, let’s get out of here.” He grabbed his brother’s hand and pulled him out of the water. They sprinted across the square and hid in the shadows a bit. The protesters were closer now, and Wirt swore he saw one of the men up front stare at them and follow their moves with his eyes.

Greg sat down on the ground, disappointed Wirt wasn’t allowing him to join the “parade.” Wirt sat down next to him to watch what was going to happen.

The police officers couldn’t stop the people from going into the square, because they weren’t actually doing anything illegal. However, they did look very menacingly at the marchers. The marchers themselves were indifferent to their glares.

One of the people at the front, the same one that Wirt thought had been watching them, stepped forward and began giving people directions. They set up a perimeter around the fountain and everyone gathered in a loud group. The person, who Wirt now noticed was only slightly older than him, stood at the edge of the fountain like Greg had did to get a better view. But instead the boy raised his hands and got the crowd to quiet down.

“Ladies and gentlemen. People of America.” Cheers erupted and he had to signal for everyone to be quiet again.

“Now the people of this country don’t know who I am. And many of you probably don’t even know who I am. Other people, people at home, people who won’t come out and support us, they probably see me as just another one of those radical black kids causing trouble. But they don’t understand that I am a person just like them. I have interests. I have hobbies. I have a family. My three little brothers and my sister are at home right now with my mother. My father lost his life fighting for this country in World War II. I have thoughts and feelings and a personality that are bigger than my skin color. I am a person. We are _all_ a people. But today, in this moment, we will band together to become one person. One person, fighting for a common cause!”

The crowd exploded again. Wirt found himself nodding and Greg was clapping and cheering. The young man giving the speech had a way of speaking that made you agree with him and want to join him. Maybe it was the words he used. Or the way he was speaking. Or his voice. Or it could have just been the cause that was so compelling.

“Hey Greg. I’m thinking we’re in the 60’s,” Wirt said, realizing what the cause meant.

“Awesome, can we join the parade now?”

Wirt thought about it. While he would very much like to stay and see how everything turned out, but they needed to get back to the Unknown. However, they couldn’t do that until the square cleared out, and it didn’t really look like the protesters were going anywhere any time soon.

“I think that we should probably just hang out here Greg. We need to get back but we’ll have to wait until they’re gone.”

“Okay, we can just hang out then.” Greg sat down again and began drawing things in the dirt. This gave Wirt an idea and drew a tic-tac-toe chart. The boys sat there for a while, playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt and then switching to hangman when they got bored. The sounds of the rally were loud behind them but they focused on the game.

“Not fair, how I was I supposed to know that?” Greg shouted when Wirt beat him after winning with the word “unscrupulous”. The young boy reached down and messed up the dirt to erase the game.

“Hey wait a minute.” Wirt turned around. “I think they’re done.”

Sure enough, the rally was breaking up. People were dividing into groups to go boycott or form smaller rallies and protests or other things.

“They’ll be gone in just a little bit. So let’s just wait a little-”

“Hey you two!” a voice said loudly in an accusing tone from behind them. Wirt whipped around and saw the boy who had been giving the speech.

“You better come with me.” he pulled them to their feet and they all walked in the opposite direction of the fountain and the way back into The Unknown.


	9. There is a Light for the Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, I haven’t posted in like 100 years. Sorry, so much stuff happened between the holidays and me getting sick and school starting again and me finally getting a job (!). Not to mention I had to do some real research and brainstorming for this chapter. I think I’ve got most of the rest of the plot mapped out for now, which is good! Hopefully I’ll be able to start posting regularly again soon, but for now updates might be a little sporadic. I’ll write as much as possible when I have time. To make up for it, I’m giving you a really big chapter today!

“Um, so where are we going? And _why_ are we going?” Wirt asked. He tried to stand a little taller because, if he was honest, this other guy intimidated him a little.

“We’ll discuss that when we get there. I don’t want a bunch of other people hearing.” He glanced around him, and for a moment his confidence waivered and he looked very unsure. But then he went back to looking in charge.

“Can you tell us your name?” asked Greg. “Or does that need to wait until we get there too?”

He smiled down at the smaller boy. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m Kenneth.”

“And I’m Gregory!”

“Nice to meet you, Gregory.”

“We didn’t see you in the Unknown before. Did you-” Greg was cut off by Kenneth clamping his hand over his mouth.

“Man, cool your chops. How about we just not talk?” Kenneth said, glancing about again. They walked on in silence.

They walked past the still-dissipating crowd and Kenneth nodded at people and made polite conversation as they went.

“Hey Lisa, how’s your brother? Good, good… Danny, so glad you could make it man! Keep up the good work Charles. Wow, Tracy, you really are devoted, I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.”

He turned to Wirt and Greg. “We’re sort of like a family here.”

“So you’re like the dad!” Greg exclaimed, and then bit his lip when he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to talk. But Kenneth didn’t seem to mind, he just laughed, a big, hearty laugh that seemed to make people around him smile.

“No, no, I’m just a guy. I’m not really in charge or anything.”

“Sure you are Kennie!” a large bald man they were passing said. “Ever since you came back, you’ve really taken lead.” The man turned to Wirt and Greg. “Don’t let this boy fool you, without him this town wouldn’t have a civil rights movement. We’d still be in the same sorry state we were before. He really takes care of business.” He turned back to Kenneth. “None of us really know what they did to you, but I have to say in a way I’m not sorry it happened.”

Kenneth smiled, a small tight one. “I’m not sure I’m sorry it happened either.”

They walked away from the man to continue their trek to wherever Kenneth wanted to take them. Wirt finally decided to perk up and ask “What did he mean when he said ‘you were taken’?”

“Nope, we’re going back to not talking.” Kenneth ordered, glaring at him. “We’ll be there soon, then I’ll explain.”

They continued on their walk. A few people they passed that smiled at Kenneth gave Wirt and Greg funny looks. One or two people actually commented “Interesting outfits your friends have there Kennie.”

The farther they went the less protesters they saw. But there were still a few units flyering, picketing, and shouting here and there.

Kenneth led them to a small house. There were a few toys in the yard but no children in sight. He knocked on the door and a worried-looking woman answered. But she broke into a smile when she saw Kenneth.

“Baby, I’m so glad you’re home! I didn’t expect you until later today, I thought you were busy?”

“Something came up Mama.” he replied and hugged her. “These are some… friends. We’re going to go hang out in my room. We’ve got some things to discuss.”

“Alright Kennie, but aren’t you going to introduce me? You have so many friends, but you hardly have them over!”

“Mom. You know why.”

She frowned. “Well I’m glad you brought these friends. So you boys are part of the movement?”

“Erm. Uh, yeah.” Wirt replied. “Well, not Greg here. I mean he would be. But I’m not sure he’s old enough… I mean… wait…”

“These guys came down from Pennsylvania to see how we were doing here. They heard about it on the news and Jeffery here thought it would be great if he could come see us.” Kenneth gestured to Wirt. “And he’s been taking care of his brother Greg here since his mom has to work full time now so the little guy had to tag along.”

“Well they sure do dress strange in Pennsylvania!” The woman exclaimed and smiled. “You can call me Mrs. Lisa.” She had a huge smile that filled up half her round face. She was shorter than Wirt but three time Greg’s size width-wise. Her skin was very dark and she had numerous, out-of-control black curls that she was attempting to keep under a purple bandana. She had small wrinkles on her face, both smile and frown lines.

Suddenly a herd of kids rounded the corner and tackled Kenneth.

“Oomph. Hey, cool it you little ankle biters!” He yelled on the ground, covered in children. They crawled off of him and beamed like little angels. There was two young boys, one about nine years old and the other seven, and an adorable little girl with her hair in braids and her front teeth missing who couldn’t have been older than six.

Kenneth sat up and squatted at his sister’s height.

“Did you lose _another_ tooth?” He asked incredulously. She smiled and nodded.

“Where is it? Let me see.”

“Ms. Jacqueline cannot show you her tooth, as to the unfortunate incident where she took it upon herself to eat it.” Mrs. Lisa explained. The girl beamed shyly and covered her mouth with one hand.

“Jackie, you _ate_ it?”

She shrugged and said in a small voice “It got stuck in my candy. I couldn’t waste a Sugar Daddy.”

Kenneth laughed and tousled her hair. Then he seemed to remember that he had business to do, and he stood up and glanced at Wirt and Greg.

“Okay guys, me and these people here need to have a _serious discussion_. In private, you hear.”

“Can we come Kennie?” asked the seven year old boy.

“No Johnny, don’t you understand what private means?” Kennie shook his head but smiled. “Alright, we’ll be in my room.”

“Oh, Kennie, me and the kids are going to step out soon, I need to get some groceries. No, don’t worry, we’ll be fine on our own, I promise.” Mrs. Lisa assured him when he started to protest their going alone. “But I want you to make sure that Grandma Lavinia has dinner.”

“Yes ma’am, I will,” Kenneth said. “Come on boys, we’re headed to my part of the house.”

Kenneth lead Wirt and Greg to a room in the back of the house. Hardly able to be called a room, it was more of a closet. It only had a small mattress on the floor, a lamp, and about a hundred books stacked on the sides of the walls, holding up the mattress, on top of the mattress, making a lampstand, and laying open across the floor.

“Sorry, I know its not very habitable right now, I hardly ever am here anymore.” Kenneth apologized.

“It reminds me of Wirt’s room! Just less posters and lame instruments.” Greg exclaimed.

Wirt would have been offended, but he was too busy wondering what on earth Kenneth could want.

“Alright,” the person in question said after shutting the door. “Let’s hear some lingo. And don’t give me any lies, I know what that fountain does.”

Wirt blinked and then decided they might as well tell the truth. Kenneth didn’t seem like a bad guy (actually comparative to the other people they had met so far he was up in the top three), and he could probably help them get back. So he went ahead and told the whole story, starting from Halloween night and summarizing their first time in the Unknown. He wasn’t interrupted until he told how they had defeated the Beast and were thrown back into their world.

“So _that’s_ what happened,” Kenneth whispered, scratching his head. “Please continue. How did you get back if everyone was thrown out of the Unknown? I thought it was a one-time deal.”

Wirt was becoming more curious as to Kenneth’s story, but he went on explaining how they got back and a few of their discoveries since they had gone back. He finally got to the part where they jumped into a pond and wound up in the middle of a civil rights rally.

Kenneth thought over everything Wirt had told him for a minute. Greg had found a book on amphibians and was pointing out Jason Funderburker’s cousins to the frog.

“Okay, now I want to hear your story. We didn’t see you in the Unknown the first time we went. Well I mean, I guess its unreasonable to have seen everyone that was there. I mean there were a lot of us that got lost. But-”

“Yeah, tell your story!” Greg butted in to cover Wirt’s rambling. He shut the book and nearly hit Jason Funderburker, who had taken a big interest in a female Kihansi Spray Toad, in the nose.

Kenneth smiled tightly and sat down on the mattress. “This might take a while. Sit down.”

Wirt looked around and finally perched on a pile of books. The top one was titled “A Study of the American Constitution and its Effect on the World”.

“I’ve always been the quiet smart kid. We didn’t have much growing up, and had even less after my father died in the war. But my mom tried her hardest to make the world good for us. And she’s always enforced the idea that _we_ need to try our hardest to make the world good for others. See, Benny, Johnny, and Jackie aren’t even directly related to me, but when there were certain women in the neighborhood who had kids with no means of supporting a child my mom took care of them so they didn’t have to go into the foster care system. Foster care is tough on us black kids.

“Anyway, I’m getting off the point. Since I was always the learning type I convinced myself I was going to go to college. I tried my hardest in school, made near-perfect grades, and applied to every college from here to South Dakota. I worked a job on the weekends and summer since I was twelve in order to pay for tuition. And finally my work paid off and I got accepted. So I started going to classes and learning all kinds of things. But one of the things that interested me was the social sciences. The way people interacted with each other was fascinating to me, who avoided people if I could help it.

“Through social studies, I met the civil rights group at school. These people were great, and super supportive. They quickly convinced me that, yes, we definitely were oppressed. It shouldn’t have been so difficult for me to get into college. My mother should not have had to work two terrible jobs that she hated in order to feed us. I shouldn’t have to use different facilities. I shouldn’t have had a lesser public education than the white folk. And my father definitely should have gotten more honors than he did when he died defending this country.

“However, I wasn’t like the other people in this group. I couldn’t go out and make speeches and stuff. But I could _write_ speeches. I could figure a budget. So I wound up doing good work anyway.

“After attending college for a year, I came home for the summer. I stayed in touch with the friends I had made though. I told them we needed to do some stuff in my hometown. Organize rallies and protests. And they told me ‘You know what you’re doing Kennie! You can do it yourself!’

“But I couldn’t. I was really broke up about it for a while there. I had all this knowledge and want to change things, but no courage to do it.

“A night or two after I came home for summer I was headed back to the house from my summer job. I still had to pay for my next semester, you see. But while I was walking home I was approached by a couple of white men with a gun and some knives and other dangerous-looking things. They had heard about me going to college and I guess they were upset a black boy could be more educated than them or something.

“Well I decided it was past time to get out of there. I ran as fast as I could, with them chasing me. I made it into the town center, where you were today. I thought that I could probably duck into the fountain and hold my breath for a while until they left. I heard a shot, jumped over the side of the pool, and next thing I knew I was in a forest.

“I was disoriented for a bit, but I knew I had to get back home. I felt like someone was watching me a lot. That must have been the Beast person you mentioned. Because I could sense it so well I wandered in the direction I didn’t feel like I was being watched. And that led me to her house.

“She was a fascinating old woman. And she made that sense of hopelessness and despair away. She knew a lot about the plants in the forest and a lot about life in general. Plus she cooked really well, which is very important. Most of all, she took me in much like my mother had taken in kids in our neighborhood. I began to look on her like a grandmother.

“She told me that there was someone out in the woods that was evil, and she seemed to blame herself for this thing even though I’m sure she had nothing to do with it. Her guilt probably came from all of the travellers like me that she had taken in to protect but then had left because they were unsatisfied with staying put. Granted, I wanted to go home more than anything, but I became kind of happy there.

“One day it began to get very cold. The old lady, who told me I could call her Lavinia, became very agitated. She said she could feel something was wrong with the Unknown. Something bad was coming.

“Then she told me if she gave the word, I needed to grab her hand and not let go. She said something about “Never wanting to go back” and a kind of worrying statement about “I may deserve it, but I won’t leave be left alone again.” As that day got colder, I made sure to stay close to her and never let her out of my sight. Then that night came a split moment when the sky went black and the whole world was dark, even darker than it had previously been.”

Wirt took a breath. He remembered that short darkness, just after the lantern had been blown out before they had all departed to their own worlds. It was just enough time to get out four words of a goodbye.

“So I fumbled in the darkness and managed to catch her hand. Next thing we knew I was in that fountain again, with a pain in my arm. Lavinia was next to me, panting heavily. She smiled and told me she wasn’t supposed to be here in my world, but she was stuck now for good. I didn’t mind and promised she could live with us.

“Well we went home and I discovered I had been gone for a week, even though it felt like I had been gone for months. My mother was worried sick, especially since Mr. Franklin, who owned the store I worked at, had seen those men follow me. But I made up a story about those men taking me to a holding area in their barn, and that is where I met who I called Grandma Lavinia.

“But I had found more than another family member in the Unknown. I also found courage. I was now ready to step up and take control of the movement in this town. And ever since, I’ve been working hard to lead the fight for our rights.

“I wasn’t like you guys, I had no drive to go back to that place. But there’s hardly a moment where I didn’t wonder what had happened to it.”

He finished his story and stood up. “I can take you back to the fountain, most of the crowd should’ve cleared out by now. By your story, I’m sure you’re pretty desperate to get back. Sorry for taking so much of your time.”

Wirt stood up too and pulled Greg up. “Yeah, that would be good.”

They walked down the hallway and Kennie peeked his head in one of the doorways. “Lavinia, I’ll be right back and then I’ll get you some food, okay?”

A strong, high voice came from the room. “Alright Kenneth dear. I’ll be fine here, don’t worry.”

Wirt tried to take a peek at the woman who had come from the Unknown, but wasn’t able to see due to the loom blocking the door.

“She enjoys making cloth and tapestries and those kind of things,” Kenneth explained. “She used to have sheep so she could make her own thread or yarn but obviously sheep would be strange here.”

They left the house and headed back the way they came. The sun was beginning to go down in the sky and cast a nice orange glow on everything. The streets only had a few cars going to and fro. It was a lazy Saturday, except for those few protesters that were still going.

“It’s too bad I didn’t get to participate in more of the things today. I meant to do more than just make a speech, I wanted to really get in there and do some work.” Kenneth said to himself.

“I’m sure you did a lot!” Greg said. “And you’ll have other days to lead other parades!”

“Sorry we kind of took you away from everything,” Wirt apologized.  
“Its fine, at least I know what happened with the Unknown now. Are you going to head back home soon?”

Wirt bit his lip and shook his head. “No, there’s still something I-we need to do.”

Kenneth nodded, seemingly understanding. “Well, try to get it done fast. That whole world-dying thing doesn’t sound real pleasant.”

They reached the town square and Wirt climbed up on the fountain holding Greg’s hand. Kennie waved goodbye, stuck his hands in his pockets, and turned to go.

“Hey, Kenneth?” Wirt said, “You people are really going to make a difference, just so you know. In my world, which I guess you could say is in the future, you made a huge change. Not that there’s still not problems, but you’ll do some groundbreaking work here.”

Kenneth smiled at them. “That’s real good to hear. Thank you.”

The boys then turned around and jumped into the fountain. As they emerged back into the Unknown Wirt took a breath of the fresh air and sighed. It was good to be in the quiet of the forest again and back on track to their mission.

Out of nowhere, an arm reached out slammed him into a tree, knocking that breath back out of his lungs.


	10. The Fight is Over

“What did I tell you?” snarled a voice in Wirt’s ear.  


He turned his head slightly and saw the Woodsman’s daughter was the one who had pinned him down. Greg saw what was happening and his eyes grew wide.  


“Hold it right there, you little dumpling. I’ll deal with you in a minute,” she said as he ran towards his brother, pointing a warning finger at the small boy. She then turned back to Wirt and scowled.  


“As I was saying. Didn’t I tell you something about running away instead of going home like good children? Oh yeah, that’s right. I said _not to_.” She glared at him menacingly and Wirt began to sweat nervously. “The last thing my dad needs to be doing is chasing you hooligans through the woods.”  


“So here’s what we’re going to do to solve this little problem you’ve created. We’re going to use that map there,” she pointed at the map Wirt had in his pocket, “and go back to your portal. If you cooperate, its possible that both of you make it in one piece.”  


There was a sudden movement to her right and faster than either of the boys could realize anything was happening, Greg was upside-down in the air, held by an ankle. Connie easily managed to keep her firm grip on Wirt.  


“Hey Wirt, a good kicking doesn’t work on her like it does on her dad.” Greg said, his upside-down frown making a strange grin.  


She smiled at him. “Yes, I have much better reaction time. Plus I’ve worked in the mill my whole life, so you’ll find I’m about as strong if not stronger than he is. And I’m pretty sure the air in this place is special because I’m only getting better. So maybe don’t try to escape again.”  


“Sir, yes sir,” Greg said, saluting and accidentally karate chopping Wirt in the shin. He grimaced in pain, but didn’t dare move.  


“Okay I’m going to trust you two can walk like normal human beings. So let’s march.”  


She unceremoniously dropped Greg, grabbed the map from Wirt, and began walking in the direction of their pool. Wirt rubbed his back and checked his shin for bruises and then grabbed Greg’s hand.  


“I guess we’re done here Greg.” he sighed, a bit dejected.  


“You’ll see her again one day Wirt, I promise.” Greg said hopefully. Again, he was amazed at his brother’s ability to just know what he was thinking. He guessed his brother took after their mother that way.  


They started the trek back to their pool, Connie standing behind them and holding the map in front of her to tell them which way to turn. However, they only made it a few steps before she paused and looked around suspiciously.  


“What was that?” she asked, staring into the trees.  


“What was what?” Wirt replied. He hadn’t heard anything. He watched the Woodsman’s daughter, who looked a bit like a spider who felt a fly land on the edge of her web.  


“I swear I…” she suddenly ducked. A half second later a knife came flying past where her head had been. She whipped around and pulled a small hatchet out of one of her boots. Wirt tried to figure out how the weapon could even fit in there.  


The Highwayman suddenly appeared out of the trees. “You stole my steal,” he grunted at Connie.  


“I stole… ohhh. I see. You want these boys. Well sorry bud, I’ve got to take these kids with me. I’m sure that whatever they did to you was terrible and they deserve you to throw knives at them, but I’m in charge of them now.”  


Greg squinted. “Wait a second. I thought that the Highwayman fought with his hands. Why is he throwing knives? That doesn’t seem very like him.” He turned to Wirt and whispered loudly, “I think this downgrade from not having a horse is really getting to him.”  


“Greg shush!” Wirt yelled, slapping his hand over the boy’s face. The Highwayman glared at them and picked up another knife from his belt. Wirt gulped.  


“Yeah, let’s not do that. I can’t prove to my father I got them home if they’re in pieces. So come on Captain Queernobs, let’s put the knives down.”  


He turned his gaze from the two boys to stare at her.  


“Um Constance or whatever? Maybe you should stop insulting him?” Wirt suggested.  


“Like this nicky ninny would know-” Wirt wasn’t sure exactly what she had said, but the Highwayman let out a roar and lunged at the girl. She was able to stop the knife with the wood part of her hatchet and spin it around on the man but he pulled another knife out of his belt.  


“You know, it's kind of weird.” Wirt said, staring at the fight. “When she’s around us she tends to use some of our slang even though she’s from like the 1870s or whatever. But when she gets around him, she suddenly switches over to his slang which is like 1780s. There’s no way she just _knows_ the linguistics of a 200 year timespan, so what-”  


“Wirt, let’s go while they’re busy!” Greg said, tugging on his hand. Wirt shook his head and blinked a few times to get himself out of his thoughts. Then he looked at the two fighting again and nodded. He and Greg ran off in the opposite direction of the battle.  


They didn’t make it ten feet before they heard the Woodsman’s daughter yell, “Look, they’re getting away!” Wirt and Greg doubled their speed.  


Suddenly there was a faint whistle and a searing pain hit Wirt’s hand. he looked down and saw one of the Highwayman’s knives had grazed him and formed a pretty deep gash.  


“You idiot!” yelled Constance. She flipped her hatchet over in her hand and hit the Highwayman hard on the top of his head. He crumpled, and she took half a second to check his pulse before running after the boys. They were huffing along as fast as they could, Wirt holding his injured hand delicately.  


“Greg there’s a pool over here I think,” he breathed, trying not to think about the pain or the blood dripping on his fingers and sleeve. They ran towards where he gestured.  


In the clearing there was not one but two pools side by side. _Perfect_ Wirt thought.  


“Grab a rock from over there,” he told Greg, pointing at some pebbles around the far pool. “Now drop them into this pool.”  


He could hear the faint rustle in the trees as Connie chased them. She made much less noise in the woods than they had made any time in the last 4 hours or so.  


Greg threw a big stone in the pool and it made a nice ripple. Then Wirt grabbed his brother’s arm with his uninjured hand, tucking the hurt one into his armpit. He took a deep breath and they both jumped into the second pool.  


They emerged in another wood next to a swimming-pool sized pond. There was a nice house not too far away. The house looked cozy, with smoke coming from the chimney.  
“I hoped that worked,” Wirt said. He pulled Greg behind a bush just in case. They watched the little lake for a minute to make sure she wasn’t coming through after them.  


“Okay she might come through this one next so we’ve got to get going.” Wirt prepared to jump back into the pool but was beginning to feel lightheaded.  


“On second thought, maybe we should go visit that house and ask if they have bandaids or something.”  


“Wirt, are you okay?” Greg asked uncertainly. Wirt tried to smile reassuringly.  


“Yeah, I’m fine its just a minor cut.” He blinked a few times to clear the black spots that were starting to float around the edge of his vision.  


Greg, even though he couldn’t help too much because of his height, tried to help Wirt walk up to the house. After what seemed to be an endless walk, they got to the doorway and could smell something baking on the other side. Wirt squinted at the door. He was beginning to have a hard time seeing anything clearly. Greg reached up his hand to knock, but the door swung open.  


“Wirt?!” said a incredibly familiar voice, a voice Wirt had heard so many times in his dreams, the voice he had been hoping to hear. He squinted at the blurry blue and red shape.  


“I-” he started. But he could no longer continue and fell promptly on the doormat like a much-anticipated package.  


As his eyes closed and everything went black, he heard as if in a tunnel Beatrice asking Greg what was wrong with him.  


The last thing he heard was her sighing “Of course he _finally_ shows up again, and he does it like _this_ , the big idiot.”


End file.
